Taking charge? Are we taking charge of our careers and of our life. Or are we waiting, waiting to be picked and selected. Because, if it’s the latter, then we lose all power. Then we seldom have a choice. But if we start taking charge. If we generate more opportunities and
Get it out of your mind. Don’t keep anything in your mind. Get it out. Get it all out. Write it on paper. Type it out in an app. You should not act from the voices inside your head, it should come from a feeling from your gut. – Cyrille Aimee.
Making important urgent. I have heard this many times: Do the important before the urgent. Eisenhower’s quadrant, law of priority and so on. But what I realise is that urgent is the only thing that happens. We can always put the important for later, simply because it is not urgent. So, the
The streak of 5. That’s the challenge. Can you reach 5? After that it takes a soul of its own. After that even the most daunting habit seems easy. But getting to that streak of 5. That’s not easy. That’s not what everyone can do. Do whatever it takes, but reach
Guilt For a long time, guilt was my predominant emotion. I would feel guilty by default. Sorry was the first word I’d say to anyone. I think guilt is useless. It is an unnecessary baggage from the past. The illusion that it creates is that it helps us learn, that
How much is your hour worth? That should be the only question that matters. If you use your hour to build an asset that generates $10,000 dollars over the next 10 years, then that’s the value of your hour. If you spend your hour watching one video after another on YouTube, then you might
Time orientation. Where is your compass pointing towards? Resistance is past obsessed. It loves when we cry over spilt milk. We can’t really do anything about that, and that’s where Resistance gets its kicks. Another Resistance favourite is the obsession with the perfect future. The future orientation that we have
Distractions and displacement activities. “But lives go down the tubes one repetition at a time, one deflection at a time, one hundred and forty characters at a time.” – Steven Pressfield. “Turning Pro” “Let me just go and get done with that thing first. It will only take a minute. After that, I’ll definitely
Not in the zone. We have all been there. Not in the right state of mind. The inspiration is not there. Something is not right. Now, until there is shame in some public manner, this state of mind can persist. Our mind has the potential to rationalise anything. “It’s not that I didn’
Once you start writing. You can think. You can discuss. You can keep deciding. You can create a huge house of cards or rather many inside your head. You can speak. You can say, we’ll do this. We can do that. But once you start writing. Once you commit. Once you decide to
The power of shipping. Shipping changes the status quo. Rather, it is the only thing that does. Shipping is irreversible. It makes a dent in the Universe. Shipping daily can change you. It’s more important than quality, novelty and all the other frills. If you can do just one thing, ship consistently.
Learning something new. When was the last time you did something for the first time? Learning something new creates new neural pathways. It breaks our old, maybe redundant neural blockages. It gives us the feeling of being a child again. Of not knowing. Whether it’s a new language, or a new skill,
Assumptions and attachments. Lead to heart break. Take control away from you. Causes you to worry about outcomes that are not in your control. What others do is upto them. What we can focus on is what we can do. The actions and not the outcomes. Creating abundance and hope. Charting the way
Discrete and continuous. There must be more than 200 points in a single tennis match. But we break it down into winning 5 points per game, 6 games per set and 3 sets per match. There are 300 balls in a single ODI innings in cricket. We break them down in 50 overs
Don't let go. When you are there, where you need to be. Doing, what you need to do. Don’t let go. No matter what. Ignore the voice that says that we have it under control. Ignore the voice that says but that will take only a minute. No matter what. It’s
Slow down. Yes, there is so much you want to do. Yes, everything is important and has to be done now. Yes, you know you haven’t been able to do anything lately. Instead of speeding up, slow down. Snail pace. Extremely slow. Feel your breath. More slow. Ignore the urges. Let
Plan to Do less. This puts us on the hook. If all we have to do today is a 20 min task, then we can’t possibly have a good reason not to do it. Making a long to-do list is another form of hiding. We know we are not going to do everything
Not ready yet. This is the most common reason/excuse I hear for someone not taking an action towards their dreams and desires. I think this is Resistance’s most potent weapon. We believe that somehow, some time in the future we’ll be ready. The stars will be aligned and the hens
Trust and doubt. Most of us have been trained to doubt. Doubt ourselves, doubt others, doubt everyone. The idea is to keep oneself safe. To avoid heartbreak and other losses. But minimising loss is very different from maximising profit. The advantages of trust, both for ourselves and others, far outweigh the safety precautions
Symptoms Guilt. Anxiety. Stress. Tension. Boredom. Fake. Fraud. Imposter. Talking and not doing. Being an a**hole Hurting others. Blaming others. Judging others. Hiding. Keeping myself safe. Doing and being Evil. And on and on it goes… When I listen to Resistance, this is what I become.
The process of getting back to focus. We all have tasted it. The laser sharp focus that led us to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. Maybe, it was the night before the exam which we were about to flunk. Or it was an impossible deadline which we had to meet. But, most of the times, it alludes us.
Why Resistance? Many times when we are struggling with procrastination and self-doubt, we tend to ask ‘Why? Why does resistance even exist?’ It’s easy to question the rules of the game as that saves us from the challenge of even playing the game. So, why does it exist. One, it doesn’
Are you busy? One of the games that Resistance plays is to make us feel ‘busy’. The irony is that when we feel ‘busy’, we rarely get anything done. The reason we are busy is that we are avoiding that one thing that needs to be done. It would make sense, then, to
Later. I think what we need to learn is to put ourselves on the hook. Because once we are on the hook, once there is no way out, then we will figure a way forward. Then we will deliver. Resistance stops us from putting ourselves on the hook. Later is almost
The perfect yesterday. One of my favourite Beatles song is ‘Yesterday’. The nostalgia of yesterday can concoct very strong emotions. We feel that we can touch it. But, perfect and yesterday, they both are indicators of a fixed mindset. If it’s perfect, it can’t become better. If it’s yesterday, you
